"A fun yet easily forgettable Star Wars game"

I'll be one of the first to admit it, I thought the idea of making a lego Star Wars game was a bad idea, and truth be told, I did not hold out much (if any) hope for this game actually being a fun game. I was sort of wrong. On the one hand the game is fun, and it's a blast to play (for the meager time it takes to complete). But once you beat it and unlock everything there's really no reason to bother playing this game again.

Story: (8/10)The story in Lego Star Wars is basically an ultra-condensed version of the Star Wars prequels, the story unfolds with cinematics that have no real acting to speak of. The cutscenes don't even detract from the story of the Star Wars films either, they are really quite faithful to the source material. I just kind of have to wonder why they didn't have any voice acting during those scenes.

Graphics: (8/10)I was somewhat surprised by the way the developers made legos look ultra detailed, the game's character design is actually pretty good, and do look a lot like the actual lego figures. The environments are also pretty well done and look like someone assembled all of the levels with real legos and designed the game around it. I also like the fact that all of the character's look so damn cute and huggable in this one. Even General Grievous (from the Cartoon Network cartoon: "The Clone Wars" and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith) who's just a big hulking brute of a droid in the cartoon and movie look cute and makes you go "aww."

Sound: (7/10)The sound effects in Lego Star Wars uses pretty much all of the standard Star Wars sounds (blasters, light sabers etc.), they do have the musical score from the films in this game and oddly seems right in place. There is virtually no voice acting whatsoever. No spoken dialogue, just the occasional shouts of the tiny lego people as they die. I can understand why it has none of the actors, it would have seemed out of place (melodrama and cartoony visuals don't mesh all that well in my book), so that's okay, but I just wish there was some voice acting here or there, not just blaster sounds and a grunting sound for when you kill someone. Also, it may have just been my copy of the game but, there were an abundant amount of audio glitches and flaws. For instance, lego Qui Gon Jinn, and lego Obi Wan Kenobi were sneaking along a droid ship, when they were pressed up against a wall the sound of a light saber turning on could be heard in the game then the rest of the cutscene proceeded in silence while the lego Jedi were fighting off droid after droid.

Gameplay: (7/10)If you've ever played a game like the Lord of The Rings: Return of the King, or the Two Towers (heck even the original Golden Axe) you've played Lego Star Wars. All you do in the game is run around nicely rendered lego environments and hack up little lego droids (or clone troopers), with your little lego lightsaber (with the occasional flight lever [complete with lego ships] or pod racing scene) for about four to six hours (it took me four hours to beat it). I can understand the reasoning for why the game is so simple, probably because it's geared for the younger gamers, but they have to assume hardcore Star Wars fanatics are going to play the game, so they should have added another difficulty level. After you complete the main quest there really isn't another reason to pop this game back into your Xbox. Aside from the task of unlocking additional characters (which can only be fun for only so long), and some of the characters are stupid and you'll wonder why you wasted your time unlocking such a useless character (especially the 'gonk droid' who is quite possibly the most useless video game character in existence), but it's cool running around the episode selection screen and seeing so many clone troopers running around.

If you're expecting great longevity from this game you'll be sorely dissapointed. This game is perfect for if your buying it for a younger brother or sister, or nephew or something like that (they may find it challenging, but I doubt it), of course if you're buying it just for a sneak peek of the Episode III stuff you'll no doubt feel somewhat ripped off by this game. It's an excellent gimmick but really it's just a really forgettable experience. Another perplexing question is, why didn't the designers release this game for the Gamecube? It would've been a perfect title for the much more kid friendly 'Cube than the FPS heavy Xbox. If you're thinking of buying this game I seriously suggest waiting for it to drop to the price of about twenty dollars, because fifty is way to high of an asking price for this game.